Steve MacKay has lead in his water.
It’s a problem he’ll fix as soon as he has the money to replace the aging grey pipe running from his property line to his north-end Halifax home.
But for now, his family only drinks water that passes through a filtration system — an imperfect solution with a young child who surreptitiously slurps up bathwater.
“He’s just being silly and will try to drink the bathwater,” MacKay says. “It’s a concern for us but we just can’t afford to replace the lead pipe right now.”
He’s not alone.
Thousands of homes in Atlantic Canada have lead service lines, despite efforts by utilities to raise awareness about the issue and offer financial aid to replace old pipes.
The situation raises potentially serious public health concerns, as well as questions of who should pay to replace toxic lead pipes or whether more could be done to limit possible lead exposure.
Lead was the standard
Up until the mid-1950s, lead was the standard material for service lines — the water pipes connecting a home to a street’s water main.
“Lead was very affordable and pliable, so it was easy to work,” says Graham Gagnon, a Dalhousie University professor and director of the Centre for Water Resources Studies.
“The health concerns of lead weren’t on the radar.”
Lead pipes continued to be permitted by the National Plumbing Code of Canada until 1975, when awareness about the risk of lead grew.
Over time, the corrosion of lead pipes and plumbing can cause lead to leach into drinking water. Lead exposure has been identified as a significant health concern, particularly among children, and has been linked to behavioral and developmental problems.
By the mid-1990s, the public portion of most lead service lines — the lateral pipe running from the main line to the sidewalk — were converted to copper.
But some “previously unknown” lead services continue to be found.
“We occasionally find previously unknown lead service lines during capital construction, and when we do, the city replaces its side (and) notifies the customer,” Nicole Taylor, Moncton’s director of utilities, said in an email.
Private pipes
Still, despite the occasional surprise lead public pipe, utilities across Atlantic Canada say drinking water is essentially lead-free in the distribution systems.
The issue is with private pipes — those that run from the sidewalk to the house — and indoor plumbing like lead solder and faucets.
A 2017 report by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board said some of Halifax Water’s customers with lead service lines are “being exposed to drinking water with high levels of lead.”
The utility estimates there are 2,000 public and 3,500 private lead services in the city.
Other cities in Atlantic Canada are struggling with the same issue.
Charlottetown’s utility says the city has about 2,000 residential and commercial customers with lead pipes.
In New Brunswick, Moncton estimates there are about a dozen water customers with lead pipes, while a spokesperson for the city of Saint John said the municipality does not have an estimate for the number of privately owned lead services.
In St. John’s, Nfld., the municipality doesn’t have records for the location or quantity of lead services — but will replace lead pipes for free.
“If the city finds a lead service for a residential property, then the city will excavate and replace it at no cost,” Lynnann Winsor, deputy city manager of Public Works, said in an emailed statement.
It’s one of the most generous lead service replacement programs in the country.
High replacment costs
Given the high cost of replacing lead pipes, financial assistance is crucial for many homeowners.
Halifax Water recently launched a program offering a 25-per-cent rebate off the cost of replacing a lead service line, up to $2,500.
Utility spokesman James Campbell said the average cost to replace a private lead service line since the rebate was launched in August 2017 has been $3,582, with an average rebate of $868.
But only 175 households have replaced a private lead service line since the rebate’s inception.
The utility — the largest in Atlantic Canada with over 84,000 customer connections — also has a loan program.
Homeowners willing to accept a lien on their property can get a loan for up to five years with an interest rate of prime plus two per cent — currently 5.95 per cent. Four homeowners have received the loan.
The slow uptake for both programs suggests that even with Halifax Water’s financial aid — among the most comprehensive in North America, according to the utility — the cost is still too great for some homeowners. Or they’re unaware they have lead pipes.
When MacKay bought his home in north-end Halifax, he says his inspector pointed out the lead pipes.
But some homeowners say they didn’t discover lead service lines until after they purchased their home — or they’re possibly still in the dark.
The rules around disclosing lead pipes are murky.
Carolin MacDonald, compliance manager with the Nova Scotia Real Estate Commission, said sellers have a legal obligation to disclose “all known material latent defects” — faults with the property that “would not be discovered by a reasonably thorough building inspection.”
“I’m not able to say if lead pipes that are not visible but are present would constitute a material latent defect,” she said by email, adding that “it’s recommended the seller speaks with their lawyer.”
Meanwhile, financial assistance to replace lead pipes depends where you live.
In Charlottetown, a city official said the utility has submitted a funding application to speed up its lead pipe replacement program, but currently offers no aid. Moncton offers a $250 grant, while Saint John does not offer any financial help.
Strict guidelines
Replacing aging lead pipes took on more urgency last spring after Health Canada set more stringent guidelines for lead in drinking water.
Citing the latest science, the federal department cut the acceptable concentration of the metal in half to five micrograms per litre, or five parts per billion, down from 10 micrograms per litre.
The new standard could push some households above the allowable limit. It also raises questions about what more can be done to encourage the replacement of lead pipes or reduce the potential corrosion of lead pipes.
Halifax Water has been working closely with Dalhousie University’s Centre for Water Resources Studies, which focuses in part on lead in drinking water.
The partnership has helped the utility limit potential lead exposure as well as develop sampling and monitoring programs.
For example, when Halifax Water was considering swapping out chlorine for chloramine as a treatment chemical to improve water quality, researchers working with the utility discovered the move would increase lead exposure.
“It turns out it would have made the water really bad,” says Gagnon, also the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Water Quality.
Heeding the advice of researchers, Halifax Water never used chloramines. But Gagnon said “Washington, D.C., found that out the hard way.” The water crisis in the U.S. capital in the early 2000s occurred after the utility started using chloramine to disinfect water rather than chlorine, causing lead levels to spike and leaving thousands of children with lifelong health issues.
Meanwhile, even though corrosion inhibitors like orthophosphate are effective at reducing lead in water, Gagnon said removing lead pipes is still critical.
National strategy
Liberal backbencher Bob Bratina has proposed a private member's bill that would create a national strategy to deal with lead in drinking water.
The Ontario MP has said Ottawa has a role to play in addressing the growing concerns of lead pipes and water quality.
Gagnon supports this approach, noting that the federal government could provide interest-free loans or a credit on federal income taxes.
“It would give an extra incentive for homeowners to replace their pipes,” he said, noting that despite Halifax Water’s generous program there still isn’t a lot of uptake.
“There's so much evidence of the health problems associated with lead, and it's a solvable issue,” says Gagnon. “It's well worth it in the long run to remove lead because it's something that as a legacy contaminant we shouldn't be burdened by.”
